PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 57 
from her, soon collect themselves into a body, and inclose 
her in the midst?.” Nay, even if she dies, as if they were 
unwilling to believe it, they continue sometimes for months 
_ the same attentions to her, and treat her with the same 
courtly formality as if she were alive, and they will brush 
her and lick her incessantly. 
This homage paid by the workers to their queens, ac- 
cording to Gould, is temporary and lccal ;—when she 
has laideges in any cell, their attentions, he observed, 
seemed to relax, and she became unsettled and uneasy. 
In the summer months she is to be met with in various 
apartments in the colony ; and eggs also are to be seen in 
several places, which induced him to believe that, having 
deposited a parcel in one, she retires to another for the 
same purpose, thus frequently changing her situation and 
attendants. As there are always a number of lodgements 
void of eggs but full of ants, she is never at a loss for an 
agreeable station and submissive retinue: and by the 
time she has gone her rounds in this manner, the eggs first 
laid are brought to perfection, and her old attendants are 
giad to receive her again. Yet this inattention after ovipo- 
sition is not invariable; the female and neuters sometimes 
unite together in the same cell after the eggs are laid. On 
this cccasion the workers divide their attention; and if 
you disturb them, some wil] run to the defence of their 
queen, as well as of the eggs, which last, however, are the 
great objects of their solicitude. This statement differs 
somewhat from M. Huber’s ; but different species vary in 
their instincts, which wiil account for this and similar dis- 
* Gould, p, 24— 
" Compare Gould p. 25, with Huber 125, note (1.) 
